Translated material
All to the bottom
Belarusian events again fueled interest in the word punisher . Journalist Anna Narinskaya wrote on her Facebook page:
“I am completely sure that the widespread renaming of the“ security forces ” -riot police, National Guard, and police officers into the“ punishers ”(this, in my opinion, launched the Nexta channel, but in any case it took root). < ... > They are punishers. This is their name. The language clarifies and defines a lot. And gives the most important division into such situations into “we” and “they”.
We are us. And they are punishers. "
Most of us are horrified by the very sound of the word: it causes completely unambiguous associations - with the Great Patriotic War. Polits and punishers . The punishers come to the village, grab residents, shoot, hang, harness at home - punish the help of the partisans. All these terrible paintings from films and books about the war were stuck in our memory since childhood:
And when the resistance was broken, the cartridges of the fighters ended, and the fighters themselves were killed, and the sounds of shots ceased to be drowned out by cries and moans of the wounded, then the punishers broke into the houses and finished off the old people, sick and cripples left there; Dogs sniffed the yards, the SS men shot the hidden children. [Anatoly Rybakov. Heavy sand (1975–1977)]]
Twenty -five partisans, directly participating in the battle, coped with one hundred and sixty enemies. Over forty punishers were killed, including seven officers, valuable trophies were captured - light machine guns, rifles, grenades and pistols. [D. N. Medvedev. Strong in spirit (it was under Rivne) (1948)]
In the last quote, not so much the content is important as the date of writing the text. This is interesting here. The verb of punishment itself indicates a fair retribution , often emanating from the highest power : we recall how Elena is praying to the Virgin in the Bulgakov’s “White Guard”: you are stripping, delay, but we are not punished with death ... We are all in the blood, but you are not punished. Do not punish .
It is impossible not to recall the terrible scene from the film “Torpedo Bronics” (1983, director S. Aranovich). Pilot Belobrov (R. Nakhapetov) had just seen from an airplane that the Germans drowned transport, which were exported women and children, and there were also close pilots. And so he noticed German ships and screams into the microphone: attack! Attack! We will punish reptiles! All to the bottom! (almost Pushkinskoye to drown everything ). And repeats: punish! And so it dies with this word. The differences between verbs punish and punish in detail by Yu. D. Apresyan in the new explanatory dictionary of the synonyms of the Russian language.
The same ideas are expressed by the word Kara . If the offender shot a hostage who tried to run, this is not a punishment . And Kara is waiting for the criminal himself - I want to believe in it, in any case. In the adjective punitive, these ideas are represented only in part: there is the idea of the highest power, and the idea of rightness was partially or completely erased - punitive psychiatry, punitive bodies .
But the noun punisher has completely turned over. As expected, initially and it implied the same circle of ideas as punishment and punishment :
The center of the house was dad. He was the highest authority for all, for us the highest judge and punisher . [IN. V. Veresaev. Memories (1925–1935)]
- What do you think: the Germans will conquer us? - asked Ivan Ilyich. - Who knows. Whom the Lord will send the punisher - from that we will accept flour ... [A. N. Tolstoy. Walking on flour/ Book One. Sisters (1922)]
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky enthusiastically writes about General Ermolov:
But he does not know Ermolov who will judge him by the dead portrait. It seems to me that not a single person is gifted with such a fluidity of expression as him! Looking at these features, poured out of the gigantic form of antiquity, you are involuntarily transferred to the times of Roman greatness; It was not without reason that the poet said about him: Run, Chechen, - the sword of the punisher Kuban shines ! [A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. AMMALAT-BEK (1831)]
In the descriptions of the Caucasian war there are approving references to punitive expeditions:
At night, it happened that Cossacks were killed on the village streets, horses and cattle were taken from the yard, and not once happened, their parties went to the mouth of the Volga. For two years, we remained in a defensive position, occasionally looking for the enemy within its warlike limits for repayment for too a daring violation of safety on the line. Not all of our punitive expeditions were successful during this period. In 1831, the head of the Caucasian line, General Emanuel, lost up to a thousand people in Aukha and was forced to return, giving only a new food of the insolence of Chechens. [F. F. Tornau. Memories of the Caucasian Officer (1866–1880)]
It is curious that in the texts of the XIX century, combinations such as the punisher of vices, the punisher of villains, the punisher for blasphemy are very common - now this word is not so used.
The modern use of the word punisher was fixed not during the Great Patriotic War, but much earlier - even in the civilian one. Moreover, it was used from different sides: there are Kolchakovsky punishers and Bolshevik punishers :
There - along the line of the railway and in cities - Kolchakovshchina still seemed alive. It was important to roasted dandy people at the stations. Obviously, with twists, they cursed, vigorous and scandalized the Kolchakovsky punishers . The speculator swarmed desperately. Occasionally, the American “American” ran past the stations. Through the wide mirror windows of wagons, it was then possible to see the "new owners" of Siberia. [P. P. Bazhov. For Soviet truth (1924–1925)]]
The pear was out of breath - ran away from the columns: - The punishers came ... with machine guns ... a half -half man ... < ... > and the punishers - a walk in the yards, cows, sheep, horses, even dogs think weapons are looking for, everyone is inquisitive, who killed those reptiles. A groan in the village is standing. They say that they will flog all the elderly, and the young people are so much in Siberia ... Lord, will we really perish like flies? .. [B. V. Savinkov (V. Ropshin). The horse of the Vorona (1923–1924)] [the heroes of the story - green, the punishers are called the Bolsheviks].
It is completely natural that by the word the punisher is attracted by a negative assessment. In the same way, the word executioner has the figurative meaning of “tormentor, sadist”, although initially he is a person who, in the position of killing the sentenced ones. And on the other hand, it is not even surprising to use the word punisher as a semi -official name of the mysterious armored vehicle presumably for the FSB. I think here is not linguistic deafness, but frank mockery.
Irina Levontina,
Vedas. scientific. sore. sector of theoretical semantics of the Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradova RAS